Method and System for Estimating an Ultrasound Attenuation Parameter

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein processing the data comprises performing a beamforming process for providing beamformed acquisition data of the region.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein estimating the ultrasonic attenuation parameter comprises estimating the ultrasonic attenuation parameter over an interval (Δz) in the depth direction.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein estimating the ultrasonic attenuation parameter comprises solving the auto-correlation function for the interval (Δz).

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the auto-correlation function of the backscattered acquisition data is a function of depth and of time.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the autocorrelation function comprises compensating for a residual diffraction pattern in the backscattered acquisition data based on predetermined diffraction reference data.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a residual diffraction pattern in the backscattered acquisition data is compensated by applying a method comprising operations (a) to (e) on a reference medium having a predetermined reference ultrasonic attenuation parameter and comparing the auto-correlation functions.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein comparing the auto-correlation functions comprises calculating a delta function ΔE(z0,z1) between the auto-correlation functions, z0 and z1 being two different depths in the medium and the reference medium, respectively, and solving the delta function ΔE(z0,z1)=0 to determine the ultrasonic attenuation parameter of the medium.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined diffraction reference data comprises predetermined parameters for at least two different depths (z0,z1) in the reference medium.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pulse is a wide band pulse and/or a plurality of pulses.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein, in case the auto-correlation function is modelled as a noisy state space model, the driving input comprises the predetermined attenuation parameter of a reference medium.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the modelized state space model uses a Kalman filter or a predefined Bayesian method to determine the local ultrasonic attenuation parameter.

15. A method for imaging a local ultrasonic attenuation within a region of a medium, comprising the method of claim 11, wherein an attenuation image is built based on the local attenuation parameters.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising building an attenuation map of the region based on the estimated ultrasonic attenuation parameter.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the system is further configured to build an attenuation map of the region based on the estimated ultrasonic attenuation parameter.